18 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
second proclaiming tone unit in order to satisfy the present communicative
need. The two tone units coalesce into a single increment which completes
an act of telling and realizes a potential telling increment.^6
2.2.2 Syntactic criterion: grammatical chains
The second necessary but not suffi cient criterion which a sequence of
elements must fulfi l in order to be identifi ed as a potential increment is
syntactic. The sequence of elements must comprise a successful run through
of a grammatical chain. In order to explicate the workings of a grammatical
chain Brazil creates a special subclass of chains which he labels simple.
Simple chains are incapable of describing the reality of most used speech,
but are introduced here as an expository device to illustrate the workings of
the chains.
Prior to the saying of the fi rst element of a chain the interlocutors are
in an initial state. After the saying of the fi rst element which, according to
Brazil, mutatis mutandis must be a nominal element (N element), the speaker
and hearer have moved to an intermediate state. After the saying of the
second element which, he says, must be a verbal element (V element)
the speaker and hearer have moved either to target state or to a further
intermediate state (p. 47). Brazil (p. 48) defi nes the terms initial and target
state as follows:
‘Initial State’ refers to the special set of communicative circumstances
which the speaker assumes he or she is operating in before the chain
begins: it embraces among other things the speaker’s perception of what,
at the present moment, the hearer needs to be told.
‘Target State’ refers to the modifi ed set of circumstances that comes
about as a result of the listener being told what needs to be told. The
whole process of telling is therefore visualized as a change from Initial
State to Target State.Some examples taken from Brazil (1995) demonstrate the workings of
the chains.^7 The minimum chain consists of two elements an N and a V
element:
(10) She died
N V
Init State Inter State Tar State